While privacy concerns are frustrating the Pentagon's plans for a far-reaching database to combat terrorism, a similar project is quietly taking shape with the participation of more than a dozen states and $12 million in federal funds.The database project, created so states and local authorities could track would-be terrorists as well as fugitives, is being built and housed in the offices of a private company but will be open to some federal law enforcers and perhaps even U.S. intelligence agencies.
Dubbed Matrix, the database has been in use for a year and a half in Florida, where police praise the crime-fighting tool as nimble and exhaustive. It cross-references the state's driving records and restricted police files with billions of pieces of public and private data, including credit and property records.
But privacy advocates, officials in two states and a competing data vendor have branded Matrix as playing fast and loose with Americans' private details.
The database is also maintained by a private company and maintained on its premises, which raises even more concerns, as the AP reports here via The Washington Times.
Comments (< $MTEntryCommentCount$>)
The concerns about a monolithic data warehouse that combine law enforcement and credit, financial, marriage and other databases are well founded. There is another approach that law enforcement is using that is highly effective, secure and does not have the potential for monitoring innocent citizens. The Philadelphia/Camden HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) has set up a network of more than two dozen local police/federal agencies and prosecutors' offices to enable rapid, secure and configurable sharing of criminal information. Done by secure Internet connection, a detective or agent can launch a search on a person, address or object and hit all the databases in one pass. Information can then be "walked out" by a mouse click to look for further associations. The advantages over MATRIX? Data stays where it belongs: on law enforcement databases. It is a fraction of the cost of MATRIX participation. No databases that are not created for law enforcement us are utilized. Data queries are against live databases and are as current a may be. No one sees that data except authorized LE agencies. Philly/Camden HIDTA has established a secure VPN with Washington/Baltimore HIDTA, and its participants. A query made in Philadelphia will hit all the participating agencies there and in Washington/Baltimore. No possibility of catastrophic failure exists. If one server goes down the others work. PCHIDTA should be commended for their use of technology, minimum use of government funds and huge successes with their network. This can be easily and cheaply duplicated anywhere, with local agencies, who really deal with most of the bad guys, able to be key players.
Jeff Rosen
www.visualanalytrics.com
310 908 3034
Posted by Jeff Rosen | < $MTCommentDate$>
Posted on February 5, 2004 12:38